PenPenWrites

parenting blog, memoir notes, family punchlines & more

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© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

recent posts

© Penelope Lemov and Parenting Grown Children, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.

Category: college debt

  • Moving Home: The Boomerang kids return to the nest

    This isn't the first time I've posted links to newspaper, magazine or blog items on how to handle a return to the nest. But it is the first time I've seen the topic covered at length by no less a media than the New York Times. In true Times tradition, "When Fledglings Return to the…

  • Money Matters: How we view the recession’s impact depends on how old we are

    As readers of this blog may know, I've got quite a collection here of studies done in Great Britain, Australia and other countries on how "the bank of mum and dad"  is faring in this economic downturn. Short answer: not well. To complement those reports, here's one from Pew on how our perspectives of the…

  • Money Matters: Helping kids work their way through debt

    In a follow up to Vanguard's posting on adult children and debt, the site let's us know what readers think. Some of the more insightful observations of matters financial are these: BUYER BEWARE: "Some of you admitted to, or alluded to, confusion over the terms of student loans and the implications of those terms. “Read…

  • Money Matters: Are we too late to help them deal with debt?

    Through my 401K at work I get to invest retirement money through Vanguard. Vanguard, in turn, tries to keep me up to date on my investment options and, occasionally, more. As in this recent piece, which I've edited to shorten but you can read the whole thing here and follow any subsequent comments. "Students these…

  • Money Matters: An Aussie take on what we can afford to give our adult kids

    The economic retrenchment is, as we know, global. We aren't the only families having to pull back financially, and that includes support for our grown children–be it paying off a college debt or helping with the down payment on a house. A report out of Australia mirrors what many here are experiencing.Evidently, the hard times…

  • Money Matters: How to talk about money

    They've got tips–100 of them–for discussing money, an always touchy topic when it comes to talking to your adult kids without making them feel like you are muddling in their financial life. They are Kathryn and Captain Frugal who write a Money Saving Blog. Here are some of the tips aimed at the adult children…

  • Money Matters: What if the kids are over their heads in debt?

    It's one thing to struggle with your own fiscal problems–retirement looming, nest egg shrinking. But it's even worse to watch your kids fall into debt. What do you do about that?That's a question raised in a recent Washington Post column, which advises parents of grown children NOT to denude their own assets in an effort…

  • Unempty Nest: They’re back. You are not alone.

    There are mixed emotions over having your grown child–a recent college grad–move back home. Others are going through it, too.

  • Money Matters: Generic guidelines for those fiscal apron strings

    Advice on the on-going debate over offering fiscal help to adult children when they are young and struggling.

  • Money Matters: Hard Hit and Hating It

    Many of us who have grown children have been hit hard financially by the economic crisis. Money we thought we'd have to live comfortably on and still help out our adult children is gone. Is that changing our relationship with our adult children? Some of us may be worried about becoming dependent on them, or…